Here are some examples of some excellent language samples Language Sample: Autism Spectrum Disorder Source: DS, age 5
ACTIVITY #1: We were sitting at a small 1:1 table kitty-corner, looking at a familiar, adapted copy of The Gingerbread Man There is often a difference between performance on novel things beyond what would be typical for any child. Teacher: with book closed “Can you tell me the story of The Gingerbread Man?” DS:looking at the book in front of him “I don’t think so.” (4) Teacher: “Why don’t you give it a try?” DS: looking at the book in front of him “I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think so.” (4 + 12) without pausing or social referencing, immediate echolalia/repetitive speech Teacher: “Let’s try it with the pictures.” opens to first illustration, a simple picture of a panda and an oven on a black background DS: “Panda.” (1) looks only at book, no social referencing Teacher: “What is the panda doing?” DS: “Baking cookie.” (2) no plural, no social referencing Teacher: “That’s right, Mrs. Panda is baking cookies.” DS: “Yeah.” (1) no social referencing Teacher: “What kind of cookies?” DS: “A cookie.” (2 This is always interesting. They do pay attention to the details but often in a retell or a write up they leave off major details. Teacher: “Anything else about the cookie?” DS: “Cookies just done.” (3) no social referencing Teacher: “That’s right, and the cookie is a gingerbread man. Let’s see what happens next.” Turns page, picture is of gingerbread man running on a black background DS: “Run, run, run.” (3) partial recitation of the repetitive text, no social referencing Teacher: read rest of repetitive text, turned page to a picture of a cow on a black background “Then what?” DS: “Stop with the cow.” (4) no social referencing Teacher: “Yes, he stopped and saw a cow.” turned page to the gingerbread man running on a black background “Then what?” DS: “The gingerbread man.” (3) no social referencing Teacher: read repetitive text, turned page to picture of Mrs. Panda and cow on black background “What happened next?” DS: “Mrs. Panda says ‘stop, stop’ and cow says ‘moo, moo’.” (10-Mrs. Panda one word) recitation of part of text, no social referencing Teacher: “Yes, the animals chased him.” flips to the end, a picture of the gingerbread man next to a gingerbread house “What happened at the end?” DS: “He runs to the gingerbread house.” (6) no social referencing Teacher: “That’s right! Nice job telling the story!” DS: looked at teacher and smiled
Total utterances: 43 Number of sentences: 12 Mean Length of Utterance: 3.6
ACTIVITY #2 We were sitting at a small 1:1 table kitty-corner, looking at two unfamiliar sequences of three picture cards each at he had just independently sequenced, right after the story retelling above.
Sequence 1: Teacher: “Can you tell me the story in these pictures? What happened first? “a sequence of a woman feeding a cat DS: looking at the first picture “First, he puts kitty its breakfast time.” (7) no social referencing, pronounconfusion he/she, used possessive pronoun and verb, idiosyncratic phrasing, no social referencing Pronoun confusion is a real problem with child with ASD
Teacher: “And then what happened?” DS: looking at the second picture “Kitty eat his breakfast.” (4) looking at second picture, used a possessive pronoun, incorrect verb use, no social referencing Teacher: “And last?” DS: looking at last picture “And last, she eat all his food.” (7) looking at last picture, pronoun/possessive pronoun mismatch, incorrect verb use, immediate echolalia
Sequence 2: Teacher: “Can you tell me the story in these pictures?” sequence of a boy feeling sick, and his mother caring for him DS: “First the boy sick and the panda.” (7) In the first picture, the mother looks concerned, and she is feeling the boy’s head.The boy is in bed with a stuffed panda. DS notices the boy and the panda, but not[the mother. no social referencing, incorrect verb use, no indication of what the panda’s relation to the boy is Wow I am so happy you saw this. This is exactly what happens!!!! We don’t understand why they are unable to answer questions or make a prediction because to us the answer is right in front of them. They might not have even noticed it!
Teacher: “And then what happens?” In the next picture, the mother is taking the boy’s temperature orally. DS: “And mom makes me. (4) He is drinking medicine.” (4) independently talks about last picture, has learned expectation “And last he all his medicine.” (6) He mistook the thermometer for a medicine spoon; I think he must have his temperature taken in his ear or under his arm at home. He did notice the mother, and related it to his own experience. The last picture is of the mother giving medicine. No social referencing, sentence fragment, then self-corrects to talk about the boy in sentence two, with correct grammar. Sentence three is missing a verb. Teacher: “Anything else?” DS: “And he goes to the doctor, and he’s going to sleep.” (11) There is no picture of a doctor; this is based on his own experience. The boy is in bed. Correct grammar, except starts with ‘and’. He may have meant that the boy went to the doctor, and is using present tense rather than past tense.
Total utterances/words: 25 Number of sentences: 8 3.1 MLU
This language sample demonstrates the impact DS’s ASD has on his social communication skills. DS is a verbal, high functioning student with ASD, who is able to be included in a typical classroom, unsupported, for half of his day. He spends the other half of his day in an intensive needs classroom. Despite his verbal skills, and the structure of the activities, his ability to retell or tell a story, even a very familiar, repetitive story, is impaired. He did not ask for help when he did not understand the task or didn’t think he could do it correctly, instead, he used repetitive language, without social referencing. The single example of social referencing comes at the end of Activity 1, when he looks at the teacher and smiles. He answers the teacher’s questions appropriately and stays on topic, taking turns speaking. The picture cards that he visually sequenced were difficult for him to translate into language. He has pronoun confusion in some of his utterances. In the scenes with the sick boy, he focused on the boy and panda first; completely missing the mother’s concerned posture and gesture. It was only in the next picture that he realized the mother was playing a role, and he was able to relate it to his own experience. His speech missed verbs at times, and was fragmented and chunked. In one of his answers, he stated “First, he puts”-trying to describe the woman putting the food down for the cat, with pronoun confusion-then continued the same sentence “kitty its breakfast”, but links “time” to breakfast as a single concept. Or-it could be “kitty” as the subject, then a complete script of “it’s breakfast time”. His MLU is that of a three-year-old, which is developmentally two years behind.
Here is another great one
Language Sample Initials or pseudonym for child: Student Age of child: 4.9 years Diagnosis ( if applicable): ASD Teacher Environment (if multiple please record above each new setting or activity): Her classroom near the end of the day. I took out the book, The Ginger Bread Girl and began to flip to a page that had few words. I found a page with few words and covered them up with my hand because her teacher told me that she can read. The student saw the front cover that showed the ginger bread girl standing on the fox’s head.
Student: What is she standing on? (5) Teacher: She’s standing on a fox’s head. Do you believe it?
Student: On his head? (3) Do you think she needed processing time or was it that she that she didn’t understand the question? Both are very common for children with language difficulties Teacher: I know. I’m going to show you a picture and I want you to tell me what you think is going on in the picture, okay? Student: What picture? (2) Teacher: What do you think is going on in this picture? (No response.) What is she doing? Student: She’s running. (2) Teacher: What else? Student: Umm. He’s going to fall off. That boysgoing to fall off. (5) (6) Error in the use of plurals Teacher: Off of what? Student: The tall horsey. (3) Immature use of word Teacher: What else do you see? Student: Umm. He’s standing on that lettuce.(5) Teacher: Oh, that’s not a good idea. Student: Why? (1) Teacher: I don’t know. Maybe it will be smooshed. They won’t be able to eat it. Student: I want to eat that piece of lettuce. (She made noises like she was eating.) (7) Teacher: Who else do you see in the picture? Student: Um, A horsey. (2) Teacher: What else? Student: Um. The ginger man girl. (4)
Look at that consruction. She seems to understand that we say Gingerbread man and this story has a girl so she is trying to piece it together. Good for her! Teacher: So, you see a ginger bread girl and.. Student: (She interrupts) Can I see the scare girl? (6) Teacher: Well, first let’s look at this picture. (There were two more people in the picture who she wasn’t talking about ). We have a girl, a boy on a horse. Who else?
In terms of autism this is something that is very very common. They will not see the whole of the picture or the situation. It is interesting to note what they do see and comment on as that talks about what is important for them.
When you gave her the specific clue she was able to respond.
Student: A girl that’s carrying a basket with lettuce. A farmer. (8) (2) Teacher: What is he carrying? Student: Um, he’s carrying…I don’t know what that is. (8) Teacher: What do you think that is? Student: I don’t know. (3) Teacher: Do you think it’s something to dig with? Student: It’s a hoe to get out the weeds. (8) How interesting, she does have the vocabulary but may have had some word finding difficulty.
Great sentence! Teacher: That is a hoe, that’s right. The ginger bread girl is running. How do you think the people feel about that? Student: I don’t know. (3) Teacher: Let’s look at their faces. What do you see on their faces? Do they look happy[ or surprised? Student: Um, um, I don’t know. Um, surprised. (4) Teacher: They do look surprised. Their mouths are like a circle. They are surprised that she came running through. Why do you think that’s something to be surprised about? Teacher’s response is great again. She highlights what gives us the clue that they are surprised.
Student: I don’t know. (3) Teacher: What is she? Student: A ginger man[. Can I see a scare ginger man girl from the fox? (3) (11) Think about this.
One of the things that we saw in the last class was that young babies are drawn to images of faces that show fear. Was she intrigued by the scared face? She has not absorbed the vocabulary yet for this label. Look at the even in this utterance she has two ways of saying it.
Research shows that one of the best predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral vocabulary in kindergarten. "PreK kids are learning vocabulary at the rate of five to six words a day," says Waite-Stupiansky. "It's just amazing how they will retain words if you use them several times in context and conversation."
Teacher: You can, but do you think it’s kind of weird that a ginger bread girl would run through a farm? Student: Yes. (1) Teacher: Why? Student: Cause it’s weird. (3[) Teacher: How come? Student: It’s silly. (2) Teacher: Is she a cookie? Student: She is not. (3) This points out one of the difficulties that children with ASD have with separating out fiction from non fiction. The lines are not well drawn for them and they often need direct instruction in this.
I put up articles that I will discuss in class about this. It is really interesting.
Thanks for having this in your language sample Teacher: What is she? Student: She’s a ginger man. (4) Teacher: She’s a ginger bread cookie. Student: (She repeats it) She’s a ginger bread cookie. (5) Teacher: Do cookies run? Student: Yes (1) Teacher: They do ? Student: (Laughs) Nooooooo! (1) Teacher: No, they don’t. That would be so silly if your cookie got up and started running. Do you think that’s why they’re surprised[P17] ? Student: Mmm hmm. (1) Teacher: Pretty silly. Do you want to see the picture on the front now? Student: I want to see the scare girl. (6) Teacher: Is that her? Or did you see a different picture? Student: No, the scare girl. (4) Teacher: You show me. Tell me when to stop turning the pages. Student: (Couldn’t find the picture she wanted to see.) Umm, let’s do that one. (4) The conversation went on a little longer, but I ended the sample here. 139 utterances / 32 sentences = 4.3 MLU (Mean Length of Utterance)
Language Sample: Autism Spectrum Disorder
Source: DS, age 5
ACTIVITY #1: We were sitting at a small 1:1 table kitty-corner, looking at a familiar, adapted copy of The Gingerbread Man
There is often a difference between performance on novel things beyond what would be typical for any child.
Teacher: with book closed “Can you tell me the story of The Gingerbread Man?”
DS: looking at the book in front of him “I don’t think so.” (4)
Teacher: “Why don’t you give it a try?”
DS: looking at the book in front of him “I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think so.” (4 + 12) without pausing or social referencing, immediate echolalia/repetitive speech
Teacher: “Let’s try it with the pictures.” opens to first illustration, a simple picture of a panda and an oven on a black background
DS: “Panda.” (1) looks only at book, no social referencing
Teacher: “What is the panda doing?”
DS: “Baking cookie.” (2) no plural, no social referencing
Teacher: “That’s right, Mrs. Panda is baking cookies.”
DS: “Yeah.” (1) no social referencing
Teacher: “What kind of cookies?”
DS: “A cookie.” (2
This is always interesting. They do pay attention to the details but often in a retell or a write up they leave off major details.
Teacher: “Anything else about the cookie?”
DS: “Cookies just done.” (3) no social referencing
Teacher: “That’s right, and the cookie is a gingerbread man. Let’s see what happens next.” Turns page, picture is of gingerbread man running on a black background
DS: “Run, run, run.” (3) partial recitation of the repetitive text, no social referencing
Teacher: read rest of repetitive text, turned page to a picture of a cow on a black background “Then what?”
DS: “Stop with the cow.” (4) no social referencing
Teacher: “Yes, he stopped and saw a cow.” turned page to the gingerbread man running on a black background “Then what?”
DS: “The gingerbread man.” (3) no social referencing
Teacher: read repetitive text, turned page to picture of Mrs. Panda and cow on black background “What happened next?”
DS: “Mrs. Panda says ‘stop, stop’ and cow says ‘moo, moo’.” (10-Mrs. Panda one word) recitation of part of text, no social referencing
Teacher: “Yes, the animals chased him.” flips to the end, a picture of the gingerbread man next to a gingerbread house “What happened at the end?”
DS: “He runs to the gingerbread house.” (6) no social referencing
Teacher: “That’s right! Nice job telling the story!”
DS: looked at teacher and smiled
Total utterances: 43
Number of sentences: 12
Mean Length of Utterance: 3.6
ACTIVITY #2
We were sitting at a small 1:1 table kitty-corner, looking at two unfamiliar sequences of three picture cards each at he had just independently sequenced, right after the story retelling above.
Sequence 1:
Teacher: “Can you tell me the story in these pictures? What happened first? “a sequence of a woman feeding a cat
DS: looking at the first picture “First, he puts kitty its breakfast time.” (7) no social referencing, pronoun confusion he/she, used possessive pronoun and verb, idiosyncratic phrasing, no social referencing
Pronoun confusion is a real problem with child with ASD
Teacher: “And then what happened?”
DS: looking at the second picture “Kitty eat his breakfast.” (4) looking at second picture, used a possessive pronoun, incorrect verb use, no social referencing
Teacher: “And last?”
DS: looking at last picture “And last, she eat all his food.” (7) looking at last picture, pronoun/possessive pronoun mismatch, incorrect verb use, immediate echolalia
Sequence 2:
Teacher: “Can you tell me the story in these pictures?” sequence of a boy feeling sick, and his mother caring for him
DS: “First the boy sick and the panda.” (7) In the first picture, the mother looks concerned, and she is feeling the boy’s head. The boy is in bed with a stuffed panda. DS notices the boy and the panda, but not[ the mother. no social referencing, incorrect verb use, no indication of what the panda’s relation to the boy is
Wow I am so happy you saw this. This is exactly what happens!!!! We don’t understand why they are unable to answer questions or make a prediction because to us the answer is right in front of them. They might not have even noticed it!
Teacher: “And then what happens?” In the next picture, the mother is taking the boy’s temperature orally.
DS: “And mom makes me. (4) He is drinking medicine.” (4) independently talks about last picture, has learned expectation “And last he all his medicine.” (6) He mistook the thermometer for a medicine spoon; I think he must have his temperature taken in his ear or under his arm at home. He did notice the mother, and related it to his own experience. The last picture is of the mother giving medicine. No social referencing, sentence fragment, then self-corrects to talk about the boy in sentence two, with correct grammar. Sentence three is missing a verb.
Teacher: “Anything else?”
DS: “And he goes to the doctor, and he’s going to sleep.” (11) There is no picture of a doctor; this is based on his own experience. The boy is in bed. Correct grammar, except starts with ‘and’. He may have meant that the boy went to the doctor, and is using present tense rather than past tense.
Total utterances/words: 25
Number of sentences: 8
3.1 MLU
This language sample demonstrates the impact DS’s ASD has on his social communication skills. DS is a verbal, high functioning student with ASD, who is able to be included in a typical classroom, unsupported, for half of his day. He spends the other half of his day in an intensive needs classroom. Despite his verbal skills, and the structure of the activities, his ability to retell or tell a story, even a very familiar, repetitive story, is impaired. He did not ask for help when he did not understand the task or didn’t think he could do it correctly, instead, he used repetitive language, without social referencing. The single example of social referencing comes at the end of Activity 1, when he looks at the teacher and smiles. He answers the teacher’s questions appropriately and stays on topic, taking turns speaking.
The picture cards that he visually sequenced were difficult for him to translate into language. He has pronoun confusion in some of his utterances. In the scenes with the sick boy, he focused on the boy and panda first; completely missing the mother’s concerned posture and gesture. It was only in the next picture that he realized the mother was playing a role, and he was able to relate it to his own experience. His speech missed verbs at times, and was fragmented and chunked. In one of his answers, he stated “First, he puts”-trying to describe the woman putting the food down for the cat, with pronoun confusion-then continued the same sentence “kitty its breakfast”, but links “time” to breakfast as a single concept. Or-it could be “kitty” as the subject, then a complete script of “it’s breakfast time”. His MLU is that of a three-year-old, which is developmentally two years behind.
Here is another great one
Language Sample
Initials or pseudonym for child: Student
Age of child: 4.9 years
Diagnosis ( if applicable): ASD
Teacher
Environment (if multiple please record above each new setting or activity): Her classroom near the end of the day.
I took out the book, The Ginger Bread Girl and began to flip to a page that had few words. I found a page with few words and covered them up with my hand because her teacher told me that she can read. The student saw the front cover that showed the ginger bread girl standing on the fox’s head.
Student: What is she standing on? (5)
Teacher: She’s standing on a fox’s head. Do you believe it?
Student: On his head? (3)
Do you think she needed processing time or was it that she that she didn’t understand the question?
Both are very common for children with language difficulties
Teacher: I know. I’m going to show you a picture and I want you to tell me what you think is going on in the picture, okay?
Student: What picture? (2)
Teacher: What do you think is going on in this picture? (No response.) What is she doing?
Student: She’s running. (2)
Teacher: What else?
Student: Umm. He’s going to fall off. That boys going to fall off. (5) (6)
Error in the use of plurals
Teacher: Off of what?
Student: The tall horsey. (3)
Immature use of word
Teacher: What else do you see?
Student: Umm. He’s standing on that lettuce.(5)
Teacher: Oh, that’s not a good idea.
Student: Why? (1)
Teacher: I don’t know. Maybe it will be smooshed. They won’t be able to eat it.
Student: I want to eat that piece of lettuce. (She made noises like she was eating .) (7)
Teacher: Who else do you see in the picture?
Student: Um, A horsey. (2)
Teacher: What else?
Student: Um. The ginger man girl. (4 )
Look at that consruction.
She seems to understand that we say Gingerbread man and this story has a girl so she is trying to piece it together. Good for her!
Teacher: So, you see a ginger bread girl and..
Student: (She interrupts) Can I see the scare girl ? (6)
Teacher: Well, first let’s look at this picture. (There were two more people in the picture who she wasn’t talking about ). We have a girl, a boy on a horse. Who else?
In terms of autism this is something that is very very common. They will not see the whole of the picture or the situation. It is interesting to note what they do see and comment on as that talks about what is important for them.
When you gave her the specific clue she was able to respond.
Student: A girl that’s carrying a basket with lettuce. A farmer. (8) (2)
Teacher: What is he carrying?
Student: Um, he’s carrying…I don’t know what that is. (8)
Teacher: What do you think that is?
Student: I don’t know. (3)
Teacher: Do you think it’s something to dig with?
Student: It’s a hoe to get out the weeds. (8 )
How interesting, she does have the vocabulary but may have had some word finding difficulty.
Great sentence!
Teacher: That is a hoe, that’s right. The ginger bread girl is running. How do you think the people feel about that?
Student: I don’t know. (3)
Teacher: Let’s look at their faces. What do you see on their faces? Do they look happy[ or surprised?
Student: Um, um, I don’t know. Um, surprised. (4)
Teacher: They do look surprised. Their mouths are like a circle. They are surprised that she came running through. Why do you think that’s something to be surprised about?
Teacher’s response is great again. She highlights what gives us the clue that they are surprised.
Student: I don’t know. (3)
Teacher: What is she?
Student: A ginger man[ . Can I see a scare ginger man girl from the fox? (3) (11)
Think about this.
One of the things that we saw in the last class was that young babies are drawn to images of faces that show fear. Was she intrigued by the scared face?
She has not absorbed the vocabulary yet for this label. Look at the even in this utterance she has two ways of saying it.
Research shows that one of the best predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral vocabulary in kindergarten. "PreK kids are learning vocabulary at the rate of five to six words a day," says Waite-Stupiansky. "It's just amazing how they will retain words if you use them several times in context and conversation."
Teacher: You can, but do you think it’s kind of weird that a ginger bread girl would run through a farm?
Student: Yes. (1)
Teacher: Why?
Student: Cause it’s weird. (3[ )
Teacher: How come?
Student: It’s silly. (2)
Teacher: Is she a cookie?
Student: She is not. (3 )
This points out one of the difficulties that children with ASD have with separating out fiction from non fiction. The lines are not well drawn for them and they often need direct instruction in this.
I put up articles that I will discuss in class about this. It is really interesting.
Thanks for having this in your language sample
Teacher: What is she?
Student: She’s a ginger man. (4)
Teacher: She’s a ginger bread cookie.
Student: (She repeats it) She’s a ginger bread cookie. (5)
Teacher: Do cookies run?
Student: Yes (1)
Teacher: They do ?
Student: (Laughs) Nooooooo! (1)
Teacher: No, they don’t. That would be so silly if your cookie got up and started running. Do you think that’s why they’re surprised[P17] ?
Student: Mmm hmm. (1)
Teacher: Pretty silly. Do you want to see the picture on the front now?
Student: I want to see the scare girl. (6)
Teacher: Is that her? Or did you see a different picture?
Student: No, the scare girl. (4)
Teacher: You show me. Tell me when to stop turning the pages.
Student: (Couldn’t find the picture she wanted to see.) Umm, let’s do that one. (4)
The conversation went on a little longer, but I ended the sample here.
139 utterances / 32 sentences = 4.3 MLU (Mean Length of Utterance)